John Lloyd is now convinced major win will become reality

JOHN Lloyd says Andy Murray’s valiant performance in the Australian Open semi-finals has convinced him Murray will one day win a Grand Slam title.

“After seeing this match, now I’m more convinced than ever he will win a major title,” said the former player. “This is a great start to the year and I would not be surprised if he wins one by the end of this year.

“The big thing I was looking at was about how he was going to compete mentally, because we’ve seen him in Grand Slams when he loses his rag and he starts moaning and whining to his group,” added Lloyd, who was a finalist at the 1977 Australian Open.

“But he didn’t do that – he was very positive throughout and I thought his attitude was superb.

“I think Ivan Lendl has been an amazing help already to Murray’s game mentally, and they’ve only just begun working together.”

Lloyd continued: “The way he’s got to see it, is that he played against the best player on the planet – who last year was so far better than anybody else. It was one of the best matches I’ve ever seen and I thought the standard was unbelievable.

“The retrieving abilities from both players, to get themselves from impossible situations and turn them into winning situations was unbelievable.

“It was an amazing tribute to both players,” added Lloyd. “For almost five hours and in those type of temperatures, they were just magnificent.”

The match saw the biggest betting-in-play turnover of the tournament according to Ladbrokes. The firm saw £250,000 turn over during in-play bets during the game, which saw the UK grind to a halt in support of Murray.

Djokovic’s win saved them from refunding £500,000 to punters who had put money on Murray going on to win his first grand slam in Melbourne.

Now Murray’s odds to win a major in 2012 have been trimmed to 6-4 and it’s 11-8 that the Scot never wins a major.

Jessica Bridge, of Ladbrokes, said: “In-play betting was through the roof. “Murray’s looking good and we’ve had to trim his chance of picking up a major this year. We expect punters to rally round Nadal for the final.”